ButtonTalk is a tool for making interactive stories. It’s purpose is to let writers create interactive text as simply as possible. You bring the ideas and the writing skills. My job is to stay out of your way, while giving you the tools you need. With ButtonTalk, you can build high quality finished programs based on interactive text. And ButtonTalk also makes pages for the World Wide Web. You don’t need programmers, musicians or visual artists. It’s all about words.
I originally thought of ButtonTalk in terms of interactive fiction. Traditional narrative is very linear, words-in-a-row, plot-line, and so on. But what are the possibilities of interactive fiction? What does plot mean in the context of reader choice? What possibilities are raised by the first person nature of interactive drama?
ButtonTalk is intended as a tool to explore these questions.
So What’s The Deal?
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Personal use is free. Commercial use requires a license. I offer a discount for educational institutions. You can copy ButtonTalk and give it to your friends. If you use it at work, sell it, or sell something you make with it, you have to give me money. In exchange for free personal use, I ask that you copy and give away the ‘ButtonTalk14.sit’ archive. Please give out the complete archive, not just the program file.
If you want to use ButtonTalk on the job, at work, for profit, send $50 per copy (or $5 per copy for educational institutions) in US funds to:
Stephen Linhart * P.O. Box 199 * Amherst, MA 01004 * USA
When you create a document with ButtonTalk, what you write is, of course, your own. When you build a program using the Build command in the File menu, the program that lets readers view your document interactively is mine. When you use ButtonTalk to write an HTML file for the Web, portions are protected by my copyright.
To promote ButtonTalk, I give permission to use the programs it builds, so long as you aren’t making any money from them and don’t modify my program. If you want to distribute a program built by ButtonTalk for profit, contact me so we can work something out.
Please Contact Me
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Please contact me with ideas, feedback and questions. I want to develop ButtonTalk responsively to the needs of writers. Also contact me if you want to use ButtonTalk commercially, or sell something you make with ButtonTalk …or if you want to publish future versions!
And I’d be happy to hear from anyone who wants to donate programming to the Windows® part of the project. :-)
Send email to: Stephen@Stephen.Com
Or visit my web page at: http://www.stephen.com/
Legal Stuff
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ButtonTalk™ and the associated files in this archive are protected under international copyright conventions, and all rights are reserved. However, you are encouraged to copy and distribute this archive freely, as long as you include all of the files. You may not modify the program, the programs it builds, or any of the associated files in any way, and you may not charge money for them — except for shipping, handling and the cost of media.
You may modify the HTML code that ButtonTalk writes, so long as you don’t remove my credit or the About ButtonTalk link.
Online services and BBSs can distribute ButtonTalk while charging their normal usage fees if they abide by the other terms described in this document. For profit CD-ROM collections must ask me first and must send me a copy of any collection that includes ButtonTalk.
I believe that this program will run on all models of the Macintosh® computer, however I do not make any claims or warranties as to its fun, safety or fitness for any purpose. ButtonTalk is a trademark of mine.
